Get Your Links Back! New Feature In Google Webmaster Tools

Google has added an important feature to the Google Webmaster tools area.
Google tells you exactly which pages result in a 404 error on your site. This has existed for sometime. They now let you know which of your 404 pages have links pointing to them. I used this tool and quickly found links pointing to [...]

Google has added an important feature to the Google Webmaster tools area.

Google tells you exactly which pages result in a 404 error on your site. This has existed for sometime. They now let you know which of your 404 pages have links pointing to them. I used this tool and quickly found links pointing to non existent pages for many of my domains. Of course, this was quickly rectified with 301 redirects.

Google wants to give you this information for a few reasons:

1. 404s creates a bad user experience
2. It benefits YOU. Google wants to count the valid links pointing to your site which translates into better rankings and more visibility on Google.
3. Having links to 404s can skew their algorithm.

Here are some more detailed posts regarding the change:

• Google Webmaster Central posts information their blog.
• Free Links to Your Site by Matt Cutts
• Google’s New Tools for Site Link Strengthening by Search Engine Watch.

Missing Data in Google Webmaster Tools

I came across an article on Search Engine Land and thought I would talk about the same issue since it’s happened to me (I thought I was the only one!). When you add a domain to your Google Webmaster Tools account, you can sign up using the “www” or non “www” version of your domain. [...]

I came across an article on Search Engine Land and thought I would talk about the same issue since it’s happened to me (I thought I was the only one!). When you add a domain to your Google Webmaster Tools account, you can sign up using the “www” or non “www” version of your domain. I just happened to sign up with the non “www” version of the domain and noticed no stats in my account. I then registered the www version and voila, things started appearing. I later found that Google considers these as two separate domains.

Here’s what Google says about this:

What can I do to make sure I’m seeing all my data?

• If you feel like you’re missing some data, add both the www and the non-www version of your domain to your Webmaster Tools account. Take a look at the data for both sites.
• Do a site: search for your domain without the www (e.g. [site:example.com]). This should return pages from your domain and any of your indexed subdomains (www.example.com, rollergirl.example.com, etc.). You should be able to tell from the results whether your site is mainly indexed with or without the www subdomain. The version that’s indexed is likely to be the version that shows the most data in your Webmaster Tools account.
• Tell us whether you prefer for your site to be indexed with or without the www by setting your preferred domain.
• Let everyone else know which version you prefer by doing a site-wide 301 redirect.